Robin Hood (Landport)
[[File:|thumb|right|500px|The Robin Hood would have been in this area or perhaps slightly south of it / Google Earth Street View.]]
By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2020-05-29. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2020-05-29.
The Robin Hood on Commercial Road in Landport, Portsmouth, existed by 1881 and at least as late as 1927.
Information on publicans etc. for this period can be found at the Pub Wiki. The 1881 census has the pub at 361 Commercial Road,[1] but subsequent references put it at No. 371 of that road. The most likely explanation for the change would seem to be that the street was renumbered. There seems to have been a good deal of building activity, and certainly several changes to the roadnet, in this area between Commercial Road and the harbour during the period in question.
IRHB is fairly confident that the pub was located on the west side of the stretch of the then Commercial Road which is now named Mile End Road. It would likely have been on or near the parking lot at Morrisons; just west or perhaps somewhat southwest of the Church Street Roundabout. The census-taker who covered the area in question visited the Robin Hood (361 Commercial Road) as the very first place. Later he came to the 'Mile End Tavern' at 317 Commercial Road. The name 'Mile End' survives, as noted, in the name of this stretch of the then Commercial Road, and the 25" O.S. map of the area published in 1898 (see georeferenced map listed below) also includes the name 'Mile End Places' for a street we can more or less identify with the present Wingfield Street, on the east side of Mile End/Commercial Road. The households on Commercial Road visited by the census-taker all had odd numbers and must all have been on the west side of the road, for very helpfully the next census form tells us that it covers '[p]art of the Parish of Portsea bounded on the North by the South side of Kettering Terrace[,] on the south by the south side of Pitt Street[,] on the East by [...] Commercial Road, on the West by the Harbour',[2] and the census-taker here begins at Pitt Street and then moves north along Commercial Road, beginning at No. 363, which must thus have been located not far north of the Robin Hood. Pit Street no longer exists, but comparing the early maps with Google Earth we see that the back walls of the houses on its south side would have followed the south perimeter of Morrisons, where the main entrances are.
The 25" map of the area published in 1933 has a 'P.H.' on the south corner of Commercial Road and Pitt Street (see Maps section below). If the address of this was Commercial Road rather than Pitt Street, it may have been the Robin Hood. An alternative location is the roughly triangular area now occupied by a Texaco pertrol station, just south of Fitzhervert Street; this also has a 'P.H.' indication on the map. Template:PnItemQry
Gazetteers
- Not included in Dobson, R. B., ed.; Taylor, J., ed. Rymes of Robyn Hood: an Introduction to the English Outlaw (London, 1976), pp. 293-311.
Sources
- 1881 Census of Hampshire, Piece 01140. image 00048, at the Genealogist (subscription required)
- Pub Wiki: Robin Hood, 371 Commercial Road, Landport, Hampshire.
Maps
- 25" O.S. map Hampshire and Isle of Wight LXXXIII.8 (c. 1860; surveyed 1859). No Copy in NLS
- 25" O.S. map Hampshire and Isle of Wight LXXXIII.8 (1898; rev. 1896) (georeferenced)
- 25" O.S. map Hampshire and Isle of Wight LXXXIII.8 (1898; rev. 1896)
- 25" O.S. map Hampshire and Isle of Wight LXXXIII.8 (1910; rev. 1906)
- 25" O.S. map Hampshire and Isle of Wight LXXXIII.8 (1933; rev. 1931)
- 25" O.S. map Hampshire and Isle of Wight LXXXIII.8 (1946; rev. 1939)
- 6" O.S. map Hampshire & Isle of Wight LXXXIII.NE (1898; rev. 1896) (georeferenced)
- 6" O.S. map Hampshire & Isle of Wight LXXXIII (c. 1871; surveyed 1856)
- 6" O.S. map Hampshire & Isle of Wight LXXXIII.NE (1898; rev. 1896)
- 6" O.S. map Hampshire & Isle of Wight LXXXIII.NE (1911; rev. 1905–07)
- 6" O.S. map Hampshire & Isle of Wight LXXXIII.NE (c. 1934; rev. 1931)
- 6" O.S. map Hampshire & Isle of Wight LXXXIII.NE (c. 1942; rev. 1933)
- 6" O.S. map Hampshire & Isle of Wight LXXXIII.NE (c. 1943; rev. 1938)
- 6" O.S. map Hampshire & Isle of Wight LXXXIII.NE (c. 1945; rev. 1938).
Background
- 1881 Census of Hampshire, Piece 01140. image 00084, at the Genealogist (subscription required)
- Lost Pubs In Portsmouth, Hampshire.
Notes
- ↑ Pub Wiki: Robin Hood, 371 Commercial Road, Landport, Hampshire; 1881 Census of Hampshire, Piece 01140. image 00048, at the Genealogist (subscription required).
- ↑ 1881 Census of Hampshire, Piece 01140. image 00084, at the Genealogist (subscription required).